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Multitasking
Jun. 2nd, 2005 08:57 pmA friend was complaining about a co-worker of hers the other day, about how he isn't capable of multitasking and only does one task at a time (and also about how slowly he does each task, but that's not relevent to the rest of this post). She was frustrated because she is a multitasker of the highest order: doing two or three things at once and planning the next task or two at the same time.
I am also a multitasker, especially at work. This makes me one of those employees that bosses like, because they can throw diverse jobs at me and I juggle them all. I plan product launches while charging credit cards, I answer phones while typing emails, I invoice accounts while discussing delivery schedules, etc.
Multitasking in this way has become a necessary skill for most jobs, as well as for many lifestyles. Then we wonder why people take medication to sleep or watch hours of mindless television to relax. By the end of a day of doing everything at once, we are too tired and we are stretched too thin to do anything, but we are also too mentally wound up to just relax on our own.
This way of life also makes it hard to enjoy any one thing. For example, I have the habit of thinking ahead to what I have to do when I get home, so I miss my walk home. Or I miss the simple pleasure of doing a job well to completion, because I always have multiple jobs at different stages, so the job as a whole never stops.
Most of the time I am a "high-functioning" multitasker: I don't lose my place in my multitude of tasks, I keep the jobs neatly separated, I am capable of putting aside tasks to focus on just one thing if it is important (dramatic) enough. I get rewarded for this behaviour, especially at work.
The ability to do just one thing at a time, however, is a skill I would like to develop. We're heading into the summer slow-down at work, and I will take the opportunity of extra time in my workday to learn to focus completely on one task, not skipping around.
I don't want to lose the ability to multitask, but I want to gain the ability not to.
I am also a multitasker, especially at work. This makes me one of those employees that bosses like, because they can throw diverse jobs at me and I juggle them all. I plan product launches while charging credit cards, I answer phones while typing emails, I invoice accounts while discussing delivery schedules, etc.
Multitasking in this way has become a necessary skill for most jobs, as well as for many lifestyles. Then we wonder why people take medication to sleep or watch hours of mindless television to relax. By the end of a day of doing everything at once, we are too tired and we are stretched too thin to do anything, but we are also too mentally wound up to just relax on our own.
This way of life also makes it hard to enjoy any one thing. For example, I have the habit of thinking ahead to what I have to do when I get home, so I miss my walk home. Or I miss the simple pleasure of doing a job well to completion, because I always have multiple jobs at different stages, so the job as a whole never stops.
Most of the time I am a "high-functioning" multitasker: I don't lose my place in my multitude of tasks, I keep the jobs neatly separated, I am capable of putting aside tasks to focus on just one thing if it is important (dramatic) enough. I get rewarded for this behaviour, especially at work.
The ability to do just one thing at a time, however, is a skill I would like to develop. We're heading into the summer slow-down at work, and I will take the opportunity of extra time in my workday to learn to focus completely on one task, not skipping around.
I don't want to lose the ability to multitask, but I want to gain the ability not to.
